i've never seen a more distinguished and better would be a group of over decisions in my life john kerry wooing congress at his nomination hearing obama's secretary of state pick as a practical sure when with so much international on the international agenda right now from the middle east to mali this post is a powerful one we'll bring you the latest from the hearings. i knew there was a risk to what i was doing. but i also know that to be seeing another person serializing human rights abuses under legal paper is not the american way per sued by government officials praised by whistleblowers around the world the man who leaked the cia torture tactics is certainly a divisive figure but now john kerry often was being honored by the government

accountability project ahead we'll tell you how. and the u.s. might be looking to end its presence in the middle east while the troops drawdown drone strikes remain the counterterrorism tactic to your for the u.s. military this fact has yemen's human rights minister loudly criticizing the pentagon is it time to change the anti-terrorism strategy question more. thursday january twenty fourth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our team. we begin today with news from capitol hill that's where secretary of state nominee john kerry faced a panel of his peers on the senate foreign relations committee where he is currently chair take a listen to how it's colleagues reacted to seeing him sitting on the other side of the table my sense is your confirmation will go through very very quickly i do look

for your testimony. because the reception we also have some footage of kerry's response says colleagues. i've never seen a more distinguished and better looking group of forward positions in my life i will not take it personally that this may be the one item in washington that seems to unite democrats and republicans to get me out of the senate quickly. well having the senate girl nominees is more than a formality it's an opportunity to properly vet the candidate and make sure they're right for the job looks like the senate already made up their minds on this what. the us meanwhile is kerry is soaking up the praise we turn now to another john who served on the senate foreign relations committee john kerry aka was a cia veteran disclose the practice of waterboarding by the agency and called it a form of torture the obama administration has charged him with violating the you

know exactly and he is now facing jail time for what he's made public they say all year was among carried out his supporters that are calling for his prep a prison sentence to be commuted the recent letter to president obama states quote we urge you to take action in this matter mr president please do not let this injustice stand commute carry to commute john kiriakou sentence and last night at a cafe here in d.c. kerry aka supporters honored him and others that they say simply speak the truth artie's just under hell was there. john kiriakou former cia agent and anti torture whistleblower may never see him self in the national portrait gallery but he was celebrated in a different kind of ceremony wednesday evening the portrait is the newest addition in the americans who tell the truth series by artist robert chatterley one of the things that we believe in in this country it's in our constitution and in our legal

structure is that we don't torture and that's why i paid it john kiriakou human rights activists legal scholars and other supporters turned out for the celebration sponsored by the government accountability project. one of those in attendance was bruce fein a top justice department official under reagan we should care because of what it says about us a civilized people doesn't work for everybody period no matter what the conceivable so-called benefits could be this celebration took place just before curiosity of sentencing on friday where he faces thirty months in prison kiriakou first stepped into the public light in two thousand and seven when he first spoke out about waterboarding as a result of waterboarding at least right now is unnecessary he was the first cia officer to publicly label waterboarding as torture and his a.b.c. appearance helped reveal that waterboarding was in the stablished protocol according to curia his lawyer just one radek it was this interview that triggered the cia investigation cia filed about six or seven crimes reports say against them

none of which the justice department decided to prosecute but clearly they've been gunning for ham for a number here and this investigation has taken a toll on curiosity want as family lost her job just because she's married to me she was. really one of the best. in october of last year curia pled guilty to violating the intelligence identities protection act in exchange for the government dropping all other charges against him kiriakou is the only cia officer facing jail time for any actions surrounding the government's torture program i never tortured anybody. to prison while the tortures of the lawyers. and the people who deceived and destroyed the tapes will never face justice in two thousand and eleven he became the six whistleblower charged with violating the espionage act by the obama administration during the

first term the number of whistleblower prosecutions under the espionage act has been unprecedented at seven more than all previous presidential administrations combined the numerous prosecutions brought under the espionage act. have certainly put a chill on those willing to speak out without these leaks we wouldn't have known about the cia's interrogation methods or n.s.a.'s warrantless wiretapping and it's these very actions that are being honored here by the government accountability project in washington i'm just you know underhill are. those of us remains committed to carrying out the covert drone war in the middle east yemen's a human rights minister is now speaking out against it are e m a sure said quote we're committed to fighting terrorism but we're calling for changing the means and strategies means and strategies can be applied on the ground without harming civilians and without leading to human rights violations this comes as the u.s. has ramped up drone strikes in recent in yemen in recent weeks it's all part of the

u.s. as shadow war against islamic militants but the drone attacks are also blamed for killing civilians fuelling anti-american sentiment in the regions where the attacks occur meanwhile the united nations has launched a major investigation into civilian drone deaths are to correspond on a stasia churkin to joins us now from new york for more hi anastasio could you tell us about this investigation by the u.s. and what questions they want answered. well is what we have going on is a group of top notch international law specialist spearheaded by the un special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism launching this investigation into the drone attacks carried out by the united states in recent years they're going to be looking into the drone strikes taking place over somalia yemen of ghana stand pakistan and the actions of israel when it comes to the occupied territories the group plans to look into from twenty to thirty specific strikes one of the areas

they're going to concentrate on are the so-called double tap strikes where rescuers for example people running to save victims of a drone strike were attacked by a follow up or are people going to funerals this has been something that's been a big concern lately with dozens of people dying in those incidents so this is what they're going to look into this is something that's going to last a while they will look into the numbers of casualties the identities of casualties and really the legal liabilities that might follow and this is something that we're not really expecting any kind of legal serious accusations to come out of but one of the things they're looking into is whether or not work crime is a term that can be used a very strong term so this is something that we're going to have to find out when this report is finally revealed in the months to come and what prompted this investigation. well that's what prompted this investigation is of course growing concerns that the increased attacks killing civilians and children on the ground

this is something that's been a big concern for years this is something that's causing huge anti-american sentiment in places like yemen specifically where recently in the latest drone strike two children were killed and we saw a group of countries russia china and pakistan addressed the u.n. human rights council and saying look we need to investigate this further so this investigation is now being launched and it's also you know the numbers really speaking for themselves one hundred seventy eight children died just in yemen in recent years eight hundred ninety one civilian since the year two thousand and four just in pakistan so this is something that needs to be addressed and the goal of this particular investigation is exactly that. so at the conclusion of this investigation what will the result to be what would the next step be will it be in the form of a resolution. well this will take on not a form of resolution but rather a report presented by these international law specialists and the key here is that you know unfortunately the reality is that every once in a while the u.

one puts together a group of investigators to follow up on these really burning issues but sadly it's very rare that these kinds of investigations and up anywhere else but the desk drawers of you know u.n. employees in this particular case when it comes to the united states and its allies we've seen often time over and over again that these kinds of investigations don't really have any serious consequences in this particular case the group says they will present the material to the united nations general assembly but we have to keep in mind that that body has absolutely no binding power they say if the findings are strong enough they might take the results of the investigation further this might mean the united nations security council the only body at the u.n. that has any kind of binding legal power but there the united states has veto power so you know it's definitely not something that's likely to cause major change in u.s. policy liz ok so it's kind of up in the air or it seems like you're pretty skeptical that it could actually change the way that the the drone more has been carried has

been carried out in places like yemen and pakistan. that's right liz because you know it's just been it's a very simple forecast because we can look at the previous examples of these kinds of reports they do cause some kind of a stir they are talked about even though there are sometimes very headline making information revealed but unfortunately we're not probably going to hear much about this you know from u.s. officials that have been completely hush hush about the whole drone war operations that they're conducting in this case they have promised to kind of operate they have to cooperate because they're legally binded to do so but my forecast is yes unfortunately very aware very unlikely to see any tangible results and change in u.s. policy come out of this you know hopefully i'm wrong but previous examples have showed that to be the case and i guess we're going to have to wait and see appreciate you staying on top of this story anastasio that was our correspondent on a saucy. well being an investigative reporter can be

a tough job and that job just got more difficult for one journalist who says she was denied insurance coverage because of her work a portland or portland oregon based independent journalist by the name of it leave vander view said state farm denied her property insurance coverage she says the reason she was declined is due to her occupation we reached out state farm for comment and they have yet to respond with a statement independent journalist leave vander view joins us now to tell us her story. tell us more about your experience with state farm. sure well i actually was approved for coverage with state farm i carry a general liability policy so that i can rent the office that i'm in today. it's basic property insurance and i paid for my policy it was issued to me i have an insurance binder from my landlord and they called me

a couple days ago and told me that. they were dumping me because an underwriter who looked at my website felt that the type of writing that i do is too controversial for them to insure. apparently there is a property in materials coverage in the insurance that i have that makes it risky for them to hearing me did they go into what exactly what is the risk that you pose. well they said that if i were to be sued for slander or libel or defamation they don't see how they could separate themselves in that they would have to defend me because my journalism my writing is the product of my business. i want to bring up some examples of the stories that you've reported on i have a couple of headlines we have hauled here one of them the prostitution of children in seattle mushrooms while portland's reputation suffers colleges in denial about

campus sexual assault problem advocates say seeds of dissent and cruise lines at doj states tougher rules by dumping and canadian waters can you elaborate more on exactly the type of work that you do the kind of stories that you investigate. sure i do mostly social justice journalism sometimes focused on the environment sometimes criminal justice issues. and i work with a handful of different employers i'm i'm not really sure patterson foundation fellow currently my works and supported by the fun for investigative journalism on for environmental journalism were pretty regularly is a contributor for investigate west a nonprofit studio in seattle and i generally do long term projects looking at social issues with the fine print on things that we. might not otherwise look at where do cruise ships leave their waste when they're traveling between alaska so

you know sometimes the work is it's awful it's probing and ask questions it is however like a lot of muckraking sober by a lawyers in a big way work is different so i was told by state farm that if i writing food reviews or pieces about bridal gowns that i would be insurable it's just not this type of controversial journalism which to me a little bit. i'm not sure that opinion is any less risky than this material it is it is right i mean i guess they don't really like the hard hitting stuff that you're covering there that they could define what exactly caused commercial journalism is a lot constitutes a concept a controversial piece i'm not sure i get no evidence of by virtue of our work that's what we do we cover i have a controversial right right that are stirring up the debate. well

what are you going to do now. well i was given it initially very short deadline twenty four hours to voluntarily withdraw the policy since it's been extended a couple days so i have until tomorrow to voluntarily leave the state farm or i am going to be cancelled which is the thing that i really don't want to have to report to one insurer to the next i don't see how that would be good for my business so i'm hustling for really to meet the deadline and i think that i have found a policy that's going to work for me i'm just talking a little bit later today with a broker from simi i see and hopefully going to move forward with new coverage in the next couple days right day affair that if you don't get the coverage from state farm that you'll have a difficult time finding it elsewhere. i i think that i can find a policy i may be looking at a higher price point but i i think i can find insurance for sure i'm

a little bit concerned about having a lapse in the policies as miley my contract with my landlord so i'm working pretty quickly and i want to ask you kind of your reaction lead when state farm tells you that they're not going to cover you because of your job that they find your your journalism controversial what was your reaction at that point and gain the thing that your job. could pose more of a risk to the insurance company i think my job probably does pose some risks to the insurance companies for sure i think that's why we have lawyers look at most of what i'm producing. my reaction though was stunning i just i was pretty floored i've never had anybody say that they won't take my money because when i do. and i i told my agent i mean this is a company that i've worked with for twelve years my property on my cars and been insured through state farm and earthquake insurance. i just. i think this is kind

of a backhanded way to treat a loyal and reliable customer i think that they could have told me that in terms of product for me or given me a little more time but they entered into a contract with me and sort of pulled the rug and it's rude beyond that i'm wondering where the social conscience is of the company and i understand that my work may be risky however i just don't think everybody in business should be willing to take some risk we knew of their corporate responsibility for. you know of course you do take some risks but a lot of occupations do involve us some risk and one way or another do you fear that that this cut that the response that you got from state farm could deter people like you that want to pursue investigative. investigative journalism from from going into it and putting themselves pursuing this career i guess i do i think

in the first place if you're an independent journalist you're not really working with the kind of legal shield that a lot of mainstream journalists are working with and i think it's very very important to the industry that more people do choose independent journalism you know the industry is in trouble it's not a secret that investigative journalism is very difficult on these days and i think calving independents out there who can innovate quicker in test new products is very very important. so that's my main concern is if we don't have people like me who are invading the model and finding places where investigative does make money then the whole industry really suffering interesting we really appreciate you coming on the show and telling us your story that was independent journalist vanderveer to thank you. after the tragic shooting in newtown connecticut across the country people are trying to find ways to make communities safer and new york city police hope to catch illegal gun carriers with full body scanners but if ice

is called terahertz imaging detection it works by scanning a targeted person has a toe and can detect when someone is carrying a gun as the scanners do its job those targeted have no idea they're being scanned so is this a new way to keep our streets safer or is this an invasion of privacy to discuss i'm joined now by danny. truth squad t.v. danny great to have you on thanks so can you tell us more about this new technology and how exactly it will be used. well that's still up in the air the n.y.p.d. says they're studying it how exactly they can implement it early reports were that they were going to be mounting these scanners in trucks or the back of police cars and as they patrol the streets they'd be scanning the passenger trains rather. walking up and down new york city streets and if they see something that resembles

a gun then that they would use that is they're just they're just there reasonable suspicion to perform a search so ray kelly the police commissioner is saying this is going to actually reduce stop and frisks because they'll only have to stop and frisk people that they actually see have weapons. who have who fight and why p.d. injustices know that this will be used as an excuse to stop and search anybody because now anything can look like a weapon anything can look like drug paraphernalia if i'm carrying a pen are they going to say it's a syringe or a knife and now that now they have a legal justification that covers them to perform a stop that really would be illegal otherwise so this technology doesn't sound like this technology is very accurate where they whatever it attacks they know in fact that it is a gun. well obviously the closer the subject is to the to the technology probably the more accurate of a visual they will get but no i mean if you're scanning as you're driving up and

down the streets you know people are moving it's going to be very difficult to to really accurate lee i mean obviously the shape of a gun is going to be more obvious then you know but they're not only looking for guns gun confiscations as a result of stop stop and frisk is like a point zero one percent so the majority of stop and frisks basically yield drug paraphernalia you know things of that nature small weapons like like knobs that are maybe a little bit too long to fall within the law that type of stuff so you know to say that this is going to stop guns is really disingenuous but there is just the issue of invasion of privacy there's no warrants involved people don't even know they're being virtually searched with this technology so so that's a big issue in itself you know this whole that they are supposed to have. permission i guess when people when police stop you and conduct these searches and

there's supposed to be some form of evidence but i guess in this case it kind of gives them a free pass is that what you're saying that's right the scanner itself can act as the evidence so all they need to say is well it looked like a gun on the scanner or it looked like a knife on the scanner that gave us the justification to stop this person and then we found nothing you know so they can blame it on the technology becomes a scapegoat right going along with this justification that it will make us safer i mean in some scenarios i guess it can because they will be presumably be able to identify people that actually are carrying weapons do you think it's worth giving up some of our freedoms in the name of safety especially in the wake of some of these tragic shootings that we've been seeing. absolutely not the peaveys own numbers prove that they are not confiscating guns as a result of this policy so now to just take it a step further and say we're just going to scan everybody without consent and without any kind of evidence. under the guise of keeping us safe for is is just

absolutely ludicrous and is a complete violation of the bill of rights. all right you know it's interesting that this comes up because we've been reporting a lot about how basically. these do things that are popping up that kind of infringe on our privacy and it does seem like we're being filmed everywhere that we specially when you're in a in a big city like new york city so is this just kind of you know just the new normal . well obviously they're going to encroach on our liberties as as much as we allow them to and that's why i'm encouraging everybody to get in touch with the legislate legislators and tell them we're not going to tolerate being scanned without consent i mean at least if they're stopping and frisking somebody that person has a the option to assert their rights and say you don't have the right to stop me unless you have seen me committing a crime or you believe that i just have committed a crime or at least there's some sort of reasonable suspicion but if they're just

stopping people at random now because they have this this machine that they can use is their scapegoat. this will just be one more encroachments and we have to protect our liberties there's really no. there's no justification for it i really it actually infuriates me because this is going this this stop and frisk tool that they call it is only being used in certain neighborhoods and it's not it's not an equal application of the laws so there's really there's so many problems with it not to mention the health problems that come along with the terahertz scanners the mit put out a report saying that terahertz waves actually tear apart d.n.a. that's the phrase they use so there's a huge health risk that should be studied before these are implemented as well well and we are seeing the backlash just recently the t.s.a. news that they're going to be removing those controversial scanners that they put into air patel airports across the country they are now removing those so we are seeing a backlash to these kinds of technologies that people find invasive want to ask you

. you said there's privacy concerns you see this as. a concern to our constitutional rights constitutional concerns. yes absolutely is absolutely an invasion or a violation of the bill of rights this is an unwarranted search it's a virtual search they may not be touching you but they are searching you without you knowing it without any proof without any warrant the founders were very clear in the wording of the bill of rights that if you suspect someone of a crime you have to go to a judge and get a warrant and it has to be based on very specific information you need to provide you need to say i want to search their person because i believe they're carrying a gun for x. y. z. reasons it's not just well we just think he's a criminal because he's wearing baggy pants so we want to search him. do you fear that are anticipate that this could become the norm a new method that police departments across the country are going to implement

absolutely this is part of a federal campaign and the n.y.p.d. serves as a model for police departments not only in our country but all over the world so they basically what they do is they beta test these technologies you know there's one hundred other things that they're testing right now including i phone apps that actually facially recognize they can scan your face and skin your eye and take a biometric reading of your eye and they put that in their database they're testing that right now the n.y.p.d. this is all coming from grants from the homeland security department they're funding the technology it's a way for the federal government to take control of police departments they buy influence with with saying well we're going to give you the latest crime fighting tools this technology that you'll never be able to afford on your own we're going to give it to you or you have to do is send all the information back to us and they do that through the n.y.p.d. intelligence division fusion center very interesting and eye opening appreciate you coming on and telling us all about unfortunate we are at a time that was danny pans out from truth squad t.v.

and we are going to leave it off there but for more on the stories we covered check out our you tube channel you tube dot com crash r.t. america i website r t v dot com slash usa and follow me on twitter liz wahl back in a half hour. you know sometimes you see a story. and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you. are welcome to the big picture. the war. in.

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